


Ice Cracking in the Dark

by TwoCatsTailoring



Category: Pokemon GO
Genre: Age Difference, Nonbinary Blanche (Pokemon), Other, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:26:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26669671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoCatsTailoring/pseuds/TwoCatsTailoring
Summary: The GO Project is finally about to get properly started and Professor Willow is glad he didn't have to hire the Team Leaders himself. But when their names land on his desk after the Board of Directors hires them, he has a startling revelation and a painful surprise waiting for him.At least he's never even heard of Candela!
Relationships: Blanche/Willow-hakase | Professor Willow
Kudos: 6





	Ice Cracking in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> This is a retelling of an older fic that I was never very happy with. I couldn't quite communicate what I was after in that one and lost interest because it wasn't doing what I wanted it to do. So, I'm giving it another go.

Professor Willow closed the file in front of him deliberately and sat back in his chair. He sighed and sorted through his thoughts carefully. He had not gotten to this point in his career by not being careful. The eve of the GO Project’s public release, his project, the baby that had consumed his every waking moment for the past four years, and he had not come this far to be sidelined by who the Board of Directors chose as the leaders of the three teams. 

He knew that the job of choosing the right people would be hard. He’d not given it much thought when the Board had advised him not to take a direct hand in the hiring, but now, with the file in front of him, he at least knew _why_ they had done it. 

If any of them had suggested Spark to him, he would have laughed too hard to have told them no. But here it was, in ordinary black and white, signed by Spark in bright green ink: the contract binding him to Team Instinct’s leadership role for the next five years. That the Board had even had him in mind was a surprise to Willow. 

Not that Spark wasn’t a great kid. He was! Smart, quick, and as likable as people came. He’d been that way since he was a little kid - all smiles and kindness. Even after it was obvious that his dad wasn’t coming back, Spark’s positive attitude never changed. Willow was sure that was the only thing that kept his mom, Amy, from losing her mind. Even after Amy’s sister Anne and Willow’s messy divorce, Spark still called him Uncle Rick and took the trouble to stay in touch. 

Spark was definitely a good kid, no doubt about it. But that was the very thing that would have disqualified him for the Team Leader position in Willow’s mind. He wasn’t even 20 yet - admittedly, he would be by the time he was supposed to report to GO HQ in two months, but that wasn’t important. He was too young, had very little in the way of experience, and Willow was just not sure Spark could manage the level of responsibility that came with the job. Spark was also full of restless energy, late to everything, and disorganized. None of those were traits that would get him very far as a Leader. 

But the Board’s decision was law, and Spark had already gone through three rounds of interviews, had all his references checked, and passed all the assessments with flying colors. There was nothing that Willow could do at this point but accept that his nephew was going to be a Leader on the GO Project and move on.

At least the Valor Leader was solid. Candela’s qualifications could brook no opposition at all. She had a long, steady, and distinguished history of research work with Pokemon and was no slouch at all in battles, either. According to the notes in her file, she had been offered a Gym Leadership role before interviewing the last time for the GO Project. She had chosen GO instead, citing in her letter of acceptance that she felt she would have more opportunities for both personal and professional growth as a Team Leader. She was, in short, precisely who he would have hired. 

Maybe the Mystic Leader would be the same, then.

Willow traded out the files, sliding Spark’s to the side and pulling the last one forward to have a look at the last of his Team Leaders. Much like Candela’s, this file was fat with papers to support the Board’s decision to hire. It might even be a bit thicker than Candela’s, but not by much. Willow was comforted by that. He wasn’t sure that he could handle a majority of novices to primary roles in GO. He’d worked too hard for too long on this project to see it come apart in practice because the people at the top weren’t ready for the job. 

That felt uncharitable to Spark, and Willow flopped back again, sighing. He was just going to have to hope that there was some hidden talent that Spark possessed. Maybe his people skills and his chronic curiosity were enough to cover the gaps in his ability to plan things? Willow truly hoped so. He didn’t want to see Spark fail any more than he wanted to see GO fail.

Right, on with the rest of his work so he could go home and fall into bed before having to be up in 6 hours to do it all over again. He sat up and flipped Mystic’s file open, ready to put a face and a name to the last of the people who would help him make this project a success. He glanced down the right page first, noted with a smile that this one was a graduate of his alma mater and first job as a Professor. That would be a good conversation starter on their first meeting. Worked the past several years with Professor Rowan, so that meant they had an evolutionary researcher now. This one was looking better and better! 

Willow looked back to the left, to the contract page attached to the inside cover of the file. It took him a couple of seconds to register what he was reading, but when he did, his stomach sank. Surely not. The name was the same, but it couldn’t be her. No, no, it couldn’t possibly be her because everywhere Spark had been he and Candela had been her, there was they or them. Just someone with the same name. It had to be.

 _But…_ , a voice in the back of his head said, _the years match up for her education. They were there at the same time._

Coincidence, he had to believe that. He just had to. There was no other way that this could come out. It was a vast world; there were a lot of people in it. Folks got married, changed their names all the time. There was no way that this Blanche Hawthorne was his Blanche.

 _You can’t call her that, you know_ , the voice reminded him. _You left, remember? The Deans told you ‘your career and hers or her, take your pick,’ and you left. You forfeited any right you could have had…._

This wasn’t her. It wasn’t, and he was going to prove it! His teeth grinding together painfully and his jaw tight enough to ache in his ears, he flipped up the contract to reveal the brief dossier behind it. 

He forgot how to breathe. 

Achingly familiar marble-green eyes stared into his soul from beneath the fringe of long silver hair he’d once loved carding his fingers through. The barest shine of chapstick drew a line against the smooth brown of her skin. 

He felt like he’d been punched in the chest and a thousand confused thoughts raced through his head as he gripped the edges of the file, desperately hoping this was a dream brought on by too much coffee and a lack of sleep.

But he knew it wasn’t. It was her. She was going to be here. She’d signed the contract and she was going to be here in two months to work on his project. Did she know? Did she care? 

No. No, wait. Willow flipped back and forth between the two pages, reading feverishly. Not her. Not anymore. The gender line was left blank on the dossier and the page after, with personal preferences and allergies (it _was_ her, he’d never met anybody else who was allergic to medical tape) listed neutral pronouns. 

Not _her_. 

Not that this realization made his feelings change at all. It was still Blanche. Blanche was going to be here. Living here. Working here. With him. Again. 

_And now_ , the foul voice of his consciousness chimed in, _you have no wife to complicate matters._

Something in his mind broke loose and pointed out that she’d - no, no, no! They had had an incredible career in the past six years. Awards, accolades, and recognition by some of the leading evolutionary agencies took up several pages and all of their professional experiences - fieldwork mostly and coauthorships on some prestigious studies - covered a few more. Willow would have been impressed with the list in anyone’s name, but in her’s… NO. 

He was going to have to get used to this before they arrived. He couldn’t just walk up to the gir… person he’d loved so wholly and cram his foot straight into his mouth from the first minute. 

Willow let Blanche’s file drop to the desktop, and his head drop into his hands. 

He wasn’t ready to work with Spark, but he could get used to it. But how was he ever going to get used to being in close quarters with Blanche again? There was no way he could manage it. He just knew there wasn’t.

His mind swirled around with panicked thoughts for several minutes, finally settling on a litany of _it was them_. 

It was _them_.


End file.
